Sunday, November 28, 2010

POEM: "To Pessoa"


To Pessoa


Damn your orthonym & heteronyms
Distracted from an unedifying life
The tips of multiple personalities
Like coast-lines from a faraway ship
I saw you in the very dark one night
At the end of a winter lane, waiting
To greet your poets as they stumbled home
And one by one each tried to salute you
One of them grabbed your jacket, pulled
You in close, breathed a noxious identity
You, he says, You have landed me in trouble
My wife no longer believes that I am me
She raves at me as if I were Pessoa
I don’t really like you, she shrieks at me
And now I find that I'm looking again at ships
A silly ardor has tampered with my soul
My constituent parts need more air
You once lived your terrible life as if
Maleficent creatures all felt the same
Now I’ll be grateful if you gave her a call.



© 2010 Rob Schackne

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